Turkey has ratcheted up its intervention in the Syrian war to an unprecedented level, according to exclusive debkafile
military and intelligence sources. For the first time in the three-year
conflict the Turkish army is allowing Syrian rebel forces, including
the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, passage through Turkish territory
for their offensive to capture the northwestern Syrian coastal area
where the Assad clan’s lands are situated.

Ankara’s support for the rebels is inclusive: Turkish troops are
posted at the roadside with supplies of ammo, fuel, food, mechanical
repair crews and medical aid for rebel forces as they head north. The
Turkish air force gives them air cover and Turkish agents arm them with
surveillance data on Syrian military movements ahead.

The Syrian fighter jet shot down on March 23 just inside the Turkish
border was in fact downed in a dogfight with Turkish warplanes, while
trying to bomb the rebel convoy heading for the new combat arena. Both
sides preferred to stay quiet about the incident and its causes.

The rebels receiving Turkish military support are disclosed by our
sources as belonging to two militias: The Syrian Revolutionaries Front
under the command of Jamal Maarouf, which has gathered in remnants of
the disbanded Free Syrian Army; and the Islamic Front, sponsored until
recently by Saudi intelligence. They number around 4,000 fighting men
including elements of the Nusra Front.

With powerful Turkish backing, this force has been able to carve a
very narrow corridor into northwest Syria from the tall Jabal al-Zawiya
in the Idlib region up to a point near Syria’s northern Mediterranean
coast, thereby severing the northwestern link between Syria and Turkey.
This was the first time rebel forces had gained full control of a
strategic corridor. First, they had to battle through and capture the
towns of Kazab, Khirbet and Samra northwest of the coastal town of
Latakia.

The Syrian army is throwing air, armored and heavy artillery strength
against the rebels to stop them firming up their positions in those
towns, while also aiming to regain command of the Syrian-Turkish border
region.

The fighting Saturday, March 29 was most intense around Kasab.

This new development in the Syrian war raises two questions:
1. For how long can the Syrian rebels hold out against constant battering by superior military strength?
2. If the rebels are thrown out of their new positions, will the
Turkish army come to their aid? If so, it would be Ankara’s first
outright military incursion into Syrian territory and the first
intrusion by a NATO member in its civil conflict.

Our sources in Ankara report that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is in
favor of going ahead. He is vehemently opposed by the Turkish chief of
staff.

It is this argument which triggered the banning of YouTube by the
Turkish government Friday, March 28 - not the important municipal
elections taking place Monday. A leaked
recording published anonymously purported to reveal a conversation
between Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, spy chief Hakan
Fidan and a general discussing how to drum up a pretext for a Turkish
attack inside Syria. A voice identified as that of Fidan appeared to
suggest a missile assault as the pretext for a Turkish invasion.

Erdogan and Turkish intelligence chiefs are convinced that the leak
was orchestrated by generals who are against deeper Turkish involvement
in the Syria war.

In the meantime, debkafile’s
Iranian sources report that Tehran was so jittery about this turn of
events that a Iranian military delegation was rushed to Ankara, arriving
Saturday, to force Erdogan to take his hands off the Syrian war by
any means, including a threat to suspend oil supplies. The two sides are still talking.

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